


I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam

by Earthseed (LeaveAMark)



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Break Up, Canon Compliant, F/F, Post-Break Up, Pre-Canon, rated t for cursing, reparations for the isle, villians make bad parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 13:55:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15511326
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LeaveAMark/pseuds/Earthseed
Summary: Contrary to popular opinion Mal did dream of Uma.





	I know you, that look in your eyes is so familiar a gleam

Mal and Uma’s relationship had the life span of an Isle flea (giant, trash dwelling creatures, that reached old age after a week). 

Mal and Evie were on a Maleficent mandated break and Mal was hiding out at Ursula’s Fish and Chips to avoid the temptation of her best friend. 

Mal was half-heartedly nibbling on some combination of fried moldy potatoes and three day old fish at a corner table when Uma fell into the chair opposite her. 

Uma’s love life was at a stalemate. She knew how Harry felt about her, and he knew how she felt about him; yet they had not so much as kissed. 

Uma’s crew was small but loyal; a patchwork of kids rejected from other gangs and given sanctuary on Uma’s ship. Most of her crew owed their lives to Uma and were prepared to follow their Captain into hell.

“My crew wanted me to throw you out by your hair. Sulking in an establishment run by people who despise you seems like an unwise decision.” Uma said picking up and inspecting one of Mal’s fries before discarding it. 

“If you’re going to throw me out can you do it without the theatrics?” Mal didn’t look up from the table.

“Nah. I couldn’t throw you out looking like a dog ate Carlos.” Uma leaned back in her chair until it balanced on two legs before letting it slam back to the ground “Unlike you.”

“Then why are you here?” Mal asked.

“At first I came to gloat, but you looked so pitiful, so heartbroken; I had to know why.” Uma leaned her elbows forward on the table. “So who broke your cold black heart?” 

“It’s none of your Shrimpy business”

“ Well considering that you are in my Chip Shop, in my territory, I believe it is my _Shrimpy_ business.”

“Maleficent caught me and Evie together. She forbid me to see her again at risk of death.” Mal muttered under breath, tears punctuated her sentence. 

Uma knew how it felt to have a mom who didn’t care about your happiness (a common affliction amongst the children of the Isle). She stood and took a crying Mal’s hand.

“Come on, I can’t let the most feared leader on the Isle cry in my Chip Shop.” Uma led Mal into the apartment above the Chip Shop. Mal followed without protest and soaked Uma’s well-worn couch cushions with tears. 

Uma had always admired Mal, her territory was the largest and her crew the most feared. Uma had wanted…needed to be apart of it. Affiliation with Mal would have freed her from her mother. At least it would have, if Mal hadn’t rejected her for being too small. It was there, outside of the Mal’s hangout, the door slammed in her face that Uma learned the foundational principle of the Isle of the Lost: No one is going to save you, you have to save yourself. 

That is unless His Royal Highness Ben picks your name out of a hat and whisks you away to the ivory towers of Auradon. 

Mal crossed the bridge to Auradon a week after Uma caught her kissing Evie in the alley behind the Chip Shop. Mere hours after she had promised to love Uma forever. 

Months pass. Mal becomes a princess, Ben forgets his promise, and Uma refuses to be ignored. 

Uma dreamed of watching Auradon burn. King Beast, Fairy Godmother, Queen Belle, Ben, and every royal family burning. She dreamed of justice. But fire and destruction wasn’t going to bring back the friends she had lost and give those still alive the freedom and reparations that they were owed. Kidnapping Ben however, was a step in the right direction. 

Mal entered the Chip Shop like she owned it; and that pissed Uma off. She wasn’t on Auradon anymore; proximity to royal family didn’t win you any friends here. 

“Loser party of one, right this way please” Uma kicked a chair towards Mal. It skated along floor until Mal stopped it with her boot. She flipped it and lowered into it backwards, arms folded on the back of the chair. Uma made a fist, her nails pushed into flesh of her palm. 

_“Mal?” Uma said._

_“Yes darling”_

_“Are you incapable of sitting in chairs properly?” Uma was behind the counter cleaning the Chip Shop’s signature rusted trays. While Mal was sitting backwards in her chair, legs spread, head resting on her arms against the back of the chair._

_“Am I distracting you?” Mal’s gum popped._

_“ Yes. Very much so.”_

_Mal smiled and leaned forward, balancing the chair on its front two legs. “ Then why don’t you come over here?”_

_“Because my mother is right behind that door and I’m supposed to be working.” Uma whispered harshly._

_“When has that ever stopped you?” Mal leaned back restoring the chair to its four legs._

_Uma hurdled over the counter landing in a crouch, eyelevel with Mal. “Never”_

“Place still stinks” Mal hadn’t been in the Chip Shop since the night her and Evie got back together. 

“I’m sorry princess, we’re down a butler today.” Uma leaned her hip against the side of the table. “You know I’ve dreamed of this. Of you not just wanting me, but needing me.”

“I’m so flattered that you dream of me. I’ve haven’t given you a thought since I left.” Mal lied. She had thought of Uma, briefly, without meaning too. 

One night while Ben was sleeping Mal had wandered to the window and looked out at the black sea, the Isle barely visible against the night sky. 

_“One day, when the barrier is gone. I’m going to swim as far away from this retched island and Auradon as possible. I never want to see these floating piles of shit again.” Uma said while playing with the ends of Mal’s hair that had fallen on to Mal’s breast. Mal pulled Uma closer with the arm that was wrapped around Uma’s shoulders._

_“Jeez. Tell me how you really feel.” Mal laughed as Uma smacked her lightly._

_“Just me and the ocean. Completely limitless.”_

“Obviously.” Uma scoffed. “ You’re so wrapped up with your Prince, that you forgot about the people you left behind. How is Dizzy doing? Last I heard, Lady Tremaine was on quite the bender, got kicked out of every pub on the Isle.”

Mal grinded her teeth “What do you want?”

Uma dropped into the seat opposite Mal. She put her elbow on the table. “If you win Ben is free to go.”

Mal blinked, arm wrestling was a child’s challenge, before putting her elbow on the table and grabbing Uma’s hand. Fingerless leather gloves covered both of their hands but they still recognized each other’s heat. 

“ On three” Mal doesn’t break eye contact with Uma

“One” Uma squeezes for dominance.

“Two” But Mal has always been physically stronger than Uma. 

“Three”

They hadn’t touched each other since the night that the Isle flea died. 

_Mal kicked the door. “Uma, open up, I’ve been freezing my ass off out here for ten minutes.”_

_“Go away Mal.” Uma yelled from the other side of the locked door._

_“No.” Mal kicked the door again._

_Uma opened the door a crack, just enough for one eye. “ Stop kicking the door. You’ll wake Ursula.” Uma tried to shut the door but Mal forced it open. Uma stumbled back._

_“Can we talk?” Mal asked shutting the door._

_“I don’t want to talk to you.”_

_“Fine then, we don’t have to talk” Mal came up behind Uma and pulled her close by the waist while burying her face in Uma’s neck._

_Uma stomped her heel on the toe of Mal’s boot. “Get your sex somewhere else. I’m sure Evie’s available once she done with Gaston.”_

_Mal’s eyes turned a radioactive green. “Don’t talk about Evie like that. I’m not allowed to be with in 50 ft. of her and you know that.”_

_Uma sat on the couch that doubled as her bed when her mom spent the night in their apartment. “ Really? Cause you seemed a little closer than that when your tongue was down her throat.”_

_“I never-“_

_“Don’t lie to me. I saw you behind the Chip Shop this morning.”_

_“Uma I’m sorry-“ Mal stepped towards the couch and Uma put her hand up._

_“Don’t. Go and fuck the Isle slut. I don’t care. Just get out of my life.” Uma let her neck go weak and her head fell onto the back of the couch._

_Preverbal smoke blew out of Mal’s ears. She stormed towards the door. Just before she slammed the door Mal looked back at Uma collapsed on the couch “ You know, I never loved you. All the sweet things I whispered in your ear were meant for Evie. You were nothing but a Shrimpy distraction.”_

_Uma didn’t move. Mal slammed the door before she could see the tear that escaped from under Uma’s eyelid._

“You know that whole princess act, I never bought it for a second. I know you too well.” Uma said

“You know nothing about me”

“I know everything about you”

Mal’s eyes turned green and Uma pulled her ace. 

“If I win… you bring me the wand.” Uma smiled as Mal faltered. Bring me the wand, the command given by her mother coming from her ex-lover’s mouth is enough of an emotional shock for Mal to stumble. 

Uma slams Mal’s hand to the table and jumps up in victory. The Chip Shop cheers, the patrons are mostly Uma’s motley crew of orphans and rejects; but even the unaffiliated rejoice at the prospect of freedom. 

“Bring me the wand Mal, or you can kiss your baby goodbye.” Uma spun, her hair fanning out around her hips; she blew Mal a kiss as she skipped away.

**Author's Note:**

> title from Once Upon a Dream from Sleeping Beauty.


End file.
